


exceptional

by cuubism



Series: Tumblr Prompts [5]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Developing Relationship, Discrimination Against Downworlders, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s01e12 Malec, Getting Together, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Magnus Bane Deserves Nice Things, The Clave sucks, protective friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26119759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuubism/pseuds/cuubism
Summary: In all his centuries, Magnus could have never anticipated this: a Shadowhunter going out of his way to console a warlock. It brings him back to what he had once thought about him, that night he had stayed behind to help Magnus after healing Luke—that Alec had the potential in him to be exceptional, if only he would allow himself to become it.
Relationships: Magnus Bane & Catarina Loss, Magnus Bane & Ragnor Fell, Magnus Bane & Raphael Santiago, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Tumblr Prompts [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1887421
Comments: 20
Kudos: 214





	exceptional

**Author's Note:**

> prompt by anon on tumblr:
>
>> Everyone thinks I should stay away from you because you’re dangerous.

“You must be out of your fucking mind.”

Magnus finishes pouring their drinks, lips quirking up. “I often am, but what specifically are you referring to?”

Raphael takes the drink Magnus offers him, downing half of it in one go. “You’re going to ask out a _Shadowhunter?_ A Shadowhunter.”

“Not just like, a random Shadowhunter off the street,” Magnus says, sipping his drink.

“No, even worse,” Raphael agrees, “a _Lightwood_.”

“I didn’t realize you had such a vendetta.”

“Do you enjoy tormenting me?” Raphael demands. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Minorly, yes.”

Raphael sighs. “It wouldn’t hurt you to take things seriously once in a while.”

This stings a bit, though Magnus won’t let him know. “I assure you, I’m taking it very seriously. I don’t just wantonly let people into my heart.”

“Of course you do! That’s why I want you to take it seriously!” he rubs at his forehead. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t yell.”

“It’s alright.” Magnus lays a hand on his shoulder. “I appreciate you defending my feelings.”

“Magnus, not to be grim, but it’s not your _feelings_ I’m worried about.” Raphael looks up at him, eyes dark and serious. “Are you making provisions for your safety?”

Magnus snaps his fingers and a small flame sparks to life between them.

Raphael rolls his eyes. “I’m _serious_.”

“So am I.” Magnus strides back over to the drinks cart. He really needs a refill. “I can handle _one_ Shadowhunter, Raphael. I’m not going to going let him gut me and display my head on a pike.”

He can feel Raphael flinch, and, okay, too graphic maybe.

Magnus spins back around, beaming at him as he takes a sip of his newly topped-up drink. “It will just be _drinks_. What could go wrong?”

“Have you considered that he might be playing you?” asks Cat, sitting cross-legged on his couch.

_“I_ came onto _him_ , Cat,” Magnus reminds her as he passes her a cup of tea and sits down in his armchair.

“I didn’t say it was intentional,” Cat argues, even though that definitely was what she was saying, “but the Clave could have, you know—” she makes a little shoving motion “—put him in your path.”

“What, offered one of their own as a temptation? To what end?”

_“Devious_ ends,” Cat grumbles. “The Clave is always up to something.”

This is a valid point, but Magnus shakes his head. “If you’d spoken to him, you’d understand. He’s… hesitant, I suppose, but…” he rubs at his ear in thought, thinking back to the other night when they’d stayed up late together, drinking and talking, and how he’d _almost_ managed to break through that impenetrable shell of _duty_ Alec keeps wrapped around himself. “…There’s something there.”

Cat groans. “Oh, _God,_ you’re smiling like that again.”

“Like _what?_ ”

“All—” she waves a hand— _“smitten.”_

“Why is that bad?” Magnus protests.

“It’s not, it’s just—” Cat puts down her mug, leaning forward onto her knees to fix Magnus with her _you better listen to me_ expression. “Look, Magnus, I’ll reserve judgment on the guy, ‘cuz I haven’t met him. But it’s not just about _him._ Shadowhunters are dangerous. _The Clave_ is dangerous. Even if _your guy_ has good intentions, the Clave will always come first for him, and I wouldn’t put it past them to twist you two into something they can use.” Her expression darkens. “There are worse things than heartbreak.”

Magnus sips at his tea. She’s right, of course. She always is.

Not that it’s going to stop him.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” he says.

This, Magnus thinks, is _what could go wrong_.

He’s three drinks in, nursing the heartbreak everyone tried to warn him about, and now he’s hallucinating his dead best friend to boot. Life does love to come crashing down all at once.

_At least he didn’t try to kill me_ , Magnus thinks morosely. _Take that, Raphael._

“Focus, Magnus,” says Ragnor, tapping him on the knee with very real-feeling fingers. “You can still salvage the situation.”

“Why do you care?” Magnus grumbles. “You’re _dead_.”

Of all his friends, he really didn’t expect _Ragnor_ to be the once to encourage him in this. Then again, he’s merely a figment of Magnus’s imagination, so that could be why he’s reflecting Magnus’s desires. Oh, irony is cruel.

“Because I care about you,” Ragnor says. “Also, I need entertainment. Underworld politics are incredibly dull.”

“That does sound like a take on the afterlife I would come up with,” Magnus mutters to himself. “I’m glad my love life is an entertaining reality show for you, Ragnor.”

“So am I, but now we have to fix it.”

Magnus takes another swig of his drink. “I can’t _force_ him to want me.”

“No, you can only show him how much _you_ want _him_ , and give him a chance to reciprocate.”

“I’ve _tried._ Do I have to do everything around here?” Magnus flings his now-empty glass across the room, feeling a smidgen of satisfaction when it smashes against the wall. “Shadowhunters will always choose the _Clave_. Didn’t you hear Cat?”

“I wasn’t here for that,” says Ragnor.

“You’re in my _head_ , how were you not here for that?”

There’s a knock at the door. Magnus looks over instinctively, and when he looks back, Ragnor is gone.

It makes him want to cry all over again, but he restrains himself.

His wards aren’t indicating a threat, so he waves a hand and the door clicks open. “I’m closed for business!” he yells across the loft, “But if you want to commiserate about the sorry state of the world, I have vodka.”

“Magnus?”

Magnus almost drops the new glass he’d just summoned to his hand. He watches warily as Alec walks—no, _creeps_ is the more accurate word—across the living room until he’s standing in front of him.

“Aren’t you getting _married?_ ” Magnus asks bitterly. He was under the impression that the wedding was, well, _soon_ , but Alec’s in street clothes and doesn’t really seem like he’s focusing on that at all.

“Yeah, I—” he rubs at the back of his neck. “Are— are you okay?”

Magnus barks out a laugh. “If you’re coming to check on _my heart_ after you’re the one who broke it, don’t bother.” Oof, that was a bit harsh. He should probably stop drinking now.

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Alec has that fucking _look_ on his face, that _I came here to do something and I’m going to see it through_ look. Magnus doesn’t know when he learned to recognize that look. He sort of wishes he could unlearn it.

“I meant,” Alec continues, “that Jace and Clary told me about Ragnor. And I know you mentioned that he was a friend of yours. So I just wanted to come check if you were alright. I guess you’re not, that was a stupid question—”

_Oh._

In all his centuries, Magnus could have never anticipated this: a Shadowhunter going out of his way to console a warlock. It brings him back to what he had once thought about him, that night he had stayed behind to help Magnus after healing Luke—that Alec had the potential in him to be exceptional, if only he would allow himself to become it.

Unfortunately, Alec’s question reignites all of the heartache Magnus has been trying to push down, and he has to look away. “Oh, you know. What’s one death to an immortal?”

His voice breaks halfway through and gives him away.

Alec kneels before him and reaches out very, very slowly to lay a hand on his knee. He’s always _so_ tightly wound, always acts like he thinks if he gets too close to Magnus, he’ll lose that firm control he holds over himself.

Maybe he will.

“If it matters to you, it matters,” Alec says. Then, quietly, “You can tell me to leave if you want, I know you probably don’t want me here. But I wanted to make sure that someone was checking up on you.”

Magnus doesn’t want him to leave, God fucking damn him but he doesn’t. But he also doesn’t know what to do with any of this. He feels sort of played with, actually, but he doesn’t think Alec’s doing it intentionally—he’s just doing the best he can with the limitations put on him.

“Ragnor is— was— my oldest friend,” Magnus tells him quietly. “So, no, I suppose you could say that I am not, exactly, alright.”

Alec leans forward then, and before Magnus can even process what’s happening, he’s pulled into a hug. He freezes instinctively, shocked and caught by the fact that this might be the first time Alec’s touched him— _really_ touched him in a way that means something, that can’t be misconstrued.

Alec feels him freeze up and starts to pull back, but then Magnus’s brain catches up and he realizes that he really, desperately needs a hug, so his arms curl up around Alec’s shoulders and he pulls him back in.

And Alec gives _really_ good hugs, like he’s trying to press his own strength into Magnus’s body, so before Magnus can think twice about it he’s tucking his face into the curve of his shoulder. Alec’s hand comes up to cradle the back of his head.

And Magnus still doesn’t know what this _means_ , but he thinks, _maybe we_ can _make something of this, after all._

After a long moment, they pull apart, and Alec reaches up to wipe away a stray tear from under Magnus’s eye. He looks like he’s considering him, scanning him, making some kind of decision. Or has already made it.

Finally, he smiles a little and says, “I think I have a wedding to cancel.”

Magnus has always loved the way he smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](cuubism.tumblr.com) :)


End file.
